Educational Resources & Tech Tools 01/13/2015

• Google Sheets: Rubric Template | Teacher Tech

  tags: rubric sheets gafe Google Google_Drive

• Why Curiosity Enhances Learning | Edutopia

  tags: curiosity mindset

  • curiosity puts the brain in a state that allows it to learn and retain any kind of information, like a vortex that sucks in what you are motivated to learn, and also everything around it.
  • So not only will arousing students' curiosity help them remember lessons that might otherwise go in one ear and out the other, but it can also make the learning experience as pleasurable as ice cream or pocket money

• The Secret to Raising Smart Kids - Scientific American

  Carol Dweck's article emphasizing mindset and praise.

  tags: mindset motivation SEL

  • more than 35 years of scientific investigation suggests that an overemphasis on intellect or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unwilling to remedy their shortcomings.
  • our studies show that teaching people to have a “growth mind-set,” which encourages a focus on “process” (consisting of personal effort and effective strategies) rather than on intelligence or talent, helps make them into high achievers in school and in life.
  • Why do some students give up when they encounter difficulty, whereas others who are no more skilled continue to strive and learn? One answer, I soon discovered, lay in people's beliefs about why they had failed.
  • These experiments were an early indication that a focus on effort can help resolve helplessness and engender success.
  • The helpless ones believe that intelligence is a fixed trait: you have only a certain amount, and that's that. I call this a “fixed mind-set.”
  • The mastery-oriented children, on the other hand, think intelligence is malleable and can be developed through education and hard work. They want to learn above all else.

• Educator Resources | Agency by Design

  tags: makerspace maker resources STEAM maker movement

• The 8 Minutes That Matter Most | Edutopia

  tags: edutopia lessons lesson plans new teacher planning

  • John Irving, the author of The Cider House Rules, begins with his last sentence:

      

    I write the last line, and then I write the line before that. I find myself writing backwards for a while, until I have a solid sense of how that ending sounds and feels. You have to know what your voice sounds like at the end of the story, because it tells you how to sound when you begin.

  • That is the crux of lesson planning right there -- endings and beginnings. If we fail to engage students at the start, we may never get them back. If we don't know the end result, we risk moving haphazardly from one activity to the next. Every moment in a lesson plan should tell.
  • The eight minutes that matter most are the beginning and endings. If a lesson does not start off strong by activating prior knowledge, creating anticipation, or establishing goals, student interest wanes, and you have to do some heavy lifting to get them back. If it fails to check for understanding, you will never know if the lesson's goal was attained.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.